Method for splicing rolls of newsprint



g- 29, 1961 c. J. FRANCIK 2,998,205

METHOD FOR SPLICING ROLLS OF NEWSPRINT Filed Oct. 25. 1957 FIG. 2

2,998,205 lKETHOD FOR SPLICING ROLLS F NEWSPRINT Carl John Francik, Palos Heights, lll., assignor, by mesne assignments, to R. Hoe & Co., a corporation Filed Oct. 23, 1957, Ser. No. 691,963 2 Claims. (Cl. 242-583) My invention relates to methods of splicing a roll of printing paper to the running web of an expiring roll in a rotary-press printing plant, such as a newspaper printmg plant, without interrupting or retarding the printing operation.

It is known to make such splices by first attaching to the new roll of paper a W-shaped pattern of gummed paper tape so that the two foot points of the W lie on the leading edge of the web and the W-legs extend angularly away from these points over part of the periphery and, in totality, cover the entire width of the web. The tape is adhesively coated on both sides but the adhesive on the exposed side of the mounted tape remains dry until after the prepared new roll is journaled in parallel relation to the axis of the expiring roll and is accelerated in contact with the web being unwound from the expiring roll. After the new roll has reached the same peripheral speed as the expiring roll, a solvent is sprayed onto the surface of the new roll. This activates the adhesive of the tape and causes the web of the new roll to adhere to the web coming from the expiring roll, whereafter the web of the new roll is entrained toward the printing press. The residual end of the expiring roll is then cut off. As a rule, auxiliary tear strips or tabs are used to prevent premature unwinding of the new roll, these tabs being torn apart as soon as the web of the new roll catches onto that of the expiring roll.

While such flying paster operation, using doubly adhesive tape as described above, is superior to the obsolescent method of simply spreading glue onto the web of the new roll, it sometimes causes trouble due to the relatively large quantity of liquid solvent which must be sprayed onto the roll surface during full-speed rotation of that roll.

It is an object of my invention to eliminate such shortcomings and to devise a splicing method that does away with the necessity of applying any liquid or adhesive spray during the splicing operation proper.

To this end, and in accordance with a feature of my invention, I first prepare the new roll of paper by attaching thereto a pattern of adhesive tape generally in the known manner described above, but I use for this purpose a paper tape whose one side, to be attached to the web of the new roll, has a water-responsive adhesive or gum coating whereas the other side is coated with a --water-insoluble, normally dry and inactive adhesive which, ifsubsequently activated by organic solvent, remains tacky for a considerable length of time, namely one or more hours, as is the case particularly with the polyisobutylene-base adhesives described below.

After the new roll is prepared in the above-described manner, the exposed surface of the mounted tape is activated by applying an organic solvent. This can be conveniently done by means of a fountain brush and, due to the long-lasting tackiness of the activated adhesive, may be carried out virtually at any suitable time prior to making the splice. For instance, such activationmay be effected before mounting the new roll of Patented Aug. 29, 1961 ice paper onto the reel stand from which the roll is to be subsequently unwound. However, it is preferable to mount the prepared roll with the exposed adhesive still in dry condition onto the stand and to thereafter apply the activating solvent prior to accelerating the roll.

-In order to prevent premature sticking, the method according to the invention requires that the prepared new roll of paper, although mounted close to the web of paper then being unwound from the expiring roll, be kept out of touch with that web until the new roll is accelerated to proper speed. It is then only necessary to deflect the traveling web of the expiring roll into engagement with the rotating new roll. This can be done by a deflector bar or roller or also by means of a brush, since an engagement under slight pressure is sufficient to splice the prepared new roll to the web coming from the expiring roll, whereupon the conventional tail cutter described above is effective to sever the expiring web.

The above-described invention will be more fully understood from the example described in the following with reference to the drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a reel stand for a'newspaper printing press by an axial view upon the reel assembly of the stand; and

FIG. 2 is a front view onto a new roll of newsprint prepared for splicing. Journaled in the bearings of two-axially spaced standards 1, of which only one is visible in FIG. 1, is a reel shaft 2 on which a reel structure consisting of two axially spaced spiders is mounted. Each spider has three arms, 3, 4, 5 of equal angular spacing from each other. In the illustrated stage of operation, an expiring roll of paper 6 is rotatably mounted on arm 3 and is shown nearly depleted down to its core. The web of paper 7 passes from expiring roll 6 over a guide roller 8 toward the rotary printing press.

A new roll of paper 7 is rotatably mounted on spider arm 4. This roll is prepared in the manner described above and further elucidated in the following with reference to FIG. 2. It is assumed that at the operating moment under observation, the previously dry adhesive surface of the paster tape is already activated by a solvent and hence, is tacky. The full roll 9 extends close to the Web 7 of the expiring roll but remains out of contact therewith to prevent premature sticking. At the proper time the roll 9 is accelerated to rotate in 'the direction of the arrow 10. Contrary to known devices used for this purpose, such acceleration cannot be effected by having the roll 9 enter into frictional contact with the traveling web 7. For that reason, the roll 9 must be driven either at its shaft or, as illustrated, by means of an accelerating drive acting upon the roll periphery. l

The illustrated drive consists essentially of a belt 11 that extends about two rollers 12 and 13 ofwhich one is driven at a speed synchronized with the peripheral speed of the expiring roll 6, i.e. the linear traveling speed of the web 7. When the peripheral speeds of the two rolls are equal, the web 7 is deflected toward the roll 9. In the illustrated embodiment, this is done by shifting a brush 14 toward the web 7 thus moving the traveling web into slight pressure engagement with the periphery of roll 9, the brush 14 extending across the entire width of the web. As a result of such engagement, the tacky surface of the paster tape catches .2000 feet per minute.

onto web 7, thus splicing the web of roll 9 to the expiring web 7. Thereafter the accelerator drive for roll 9 is placed out of action and the Web 7 is severed between brush 14 and roll 6 by means of the conventional tail cutter assembly. The reel or spider assembly is then gradually turned in the direction of the arrow 15 so that the new roll 9 occupies the position shown in FIG. 1 for roll 6, the assembly is ready for loading another new roll onto the spider arm 5.

When preparing the new roll of paper, the end of the roll, indicated in FIG, 2 by a broken line 16, is first attached to the paper of the next wrap bymeans of paper tabs such as those shown at 17 and 18 Two such tabs are usually sufficient although more may be used. The purpose of the tabs is to prevent premature unwinding, but the tabs must readily tear when the roll is mounted on the, spider reel and the splice is com! pleted. Two pieces of the doubly coated tape 19 and 20, approximately two inches long, are moistened on the wateractivated side and are placed along the edge of 16 in centered relation to the tabs 17 and 18 respectively. Additional lengths are cut from the paster. tape, moistened and placed from the ends of the, short pieces 19. and 20 at a certain angle away from the tabs. Four such lengths of tape 21 22, 23 and 24 are shown. Their arrangement is such as to form the shape of a W or the shape of any number of Vs, depending upon the number of tabs used. The triangular ends of the paper are then preferably torn off along the edges of the tapes 21 to 24 so that the end of the web also as sumes W-shape.

If it is desired to increase the adhesive area, additional tape can be applied parallel to the lengths illustrated. Also any particular area can be supplied with adhesive simply by attaching a length of tape to the desired area. If a belt-type accelerator is used for synchronizing the new roll, an area somewhat wider than the Width of the driving belt 11 (FIG. 1) is left unactivated to prevent the paster tape from sticking to that belt. The width of the unactivated area is indicated in FIG. 2 at.B.

' When this preparation is completed, the roll contains a uniform thickness of adhesive at exactly the areas desired. The adhesive thus applied is not active and hence will not adhere until the activating solvent is applied. Consequently a roll can be prepared at any time previous to its use Without the danger of foreign materials adhering to it, nor will the adhesive dry out'within considerable length of time extending up to a few hours. If the adhesive, after activation by the organic solvent, has not been used for a time sufficient to cause complete evaporation of the activating solvent, the adhesive can be reactivated by again applying the solvent. The 'amount of solvent necessary for activation is extremely slight as it is appliedonly to the limited areas that require activation, rather than being sprayed over a relatively large area or the entire periphery of the roll.

' A suitable width of the above-described doubly coated adhesive tape is A of one inch. The watersoluble adhesive is of the conventional type as generally available for the gluing of paper. However, the adhesive to be activated by organic solvent and to then remain tacky for one to several hours without losing its adhesive ability, must diifer from the adhesives heretofore used the known process of activating the adhesive by a 'spray of solvent while the roll to be spliced is. rotating at full speed. That is, the solvent-activated adhesive must not only remain extremely tacky for extended periods of time, but it must also have and preserve; an extremely great adhesion ability in view of the fact that must instantaneously catch onto the traveling Web, of

the, expiring roll Without requiring any reduction in the normal web traveling speed in the order of 1000 to Hence the time during whi h the adhesive surface of the tape and the expiring web are in contact and must be bonded to each other is Example 1 A mixture is prepared of 3 parts by weight of polyisobutylene, 5 parts Zinc resinate (saturated resin), and 9 parts of diphenyl ethylene diamine, available in the trade as an antioxidant for rubber. A coating made of this mixture can be activated to stay tacky for several hours by applying kerosene as a solvent. Preferably applicable, however, is trichloroethylene, alone or in mixture with additives, such as 2.8 parts by volume of trichloroethylene mixed with one part of light spindle oil (lighter portions of petroleum distillates), 26-35 B., flash point 320-450 F., viscosity (Saybolt) 400-440/ 70 F. or a mixture of 1.5 parts by volume of trichloroethylene mixed with one part of light mineral oil u h as. the n i s me t oned- Exa pl 2 One part by weight of acrylonitrile-butadiene co-polymer is mixed with 4 parts of p-tert-butylphenol-formal dehyde resin as used in varnish. The mixture is activated by one of the solvents mentioned in Example 1.

Example 3 Four parts by weight of polymerized methyl methacrylite resin (4n-butyl methacrylate polymer) is mixed with 2 parts of p-tert-butylphenol-formaldehyde resin. The mixture is activated by one, of the solvents men-v tioned in Example 1.

I claim:

1. For rotary printing-press operation, the method of splicing a new roll of printing paper to the web of an expiring roll, which comprises preparing the new roll by fastening the leading end of the web of said new roll to the next wrap of said roll at axially spaced locations by means of tearable tabs, and attaching to said leading end a number of strips of adhesive tape that extend from a respective tab away in angular relation to the leading edge of said end, said tape having a water-soluble adhesive on its back side adhering to said end and having on its front side a dry adhesive normally inactive and activatable by organic solvent; thereafter applying to the dry adhesive an activating solvent whereupon said dry adhesive becomes tacky; thereafter accelerating the prepared new roll in parallel relation to the expiring roll up to synchronous peripheral speed but in spaced relation to the Web being unwound from the expiring roll;

and there-after placing during synchronous run the web coming from the expiring roll into contact engagement with the new roll whereby the previously activated adhesive causes adherence and entrainment of the web from the new roll.

2. For rotary printing-press operation, the method of splicing a new roll of printing paper to the web of an expiring roll, which comprises preparing the new roll by attaching the leading end of the web of said new roll to the next wrap of said roll at axially'spaced locations roll and in juxtaposed but spaced relation to the web being unwound from said expiring roll; then applying to the dry adhesive an activating solvent whereupon said dry adhesive becomes tacky; thereafter accelerating the prepared new roll up to the peripheral speed of the expiring roll while the prepared roll is still out of contact with said expiring-roll web; and then deflecting the latter web into contact engagement with the running new roll whereby the previously activated adhesive causes adherence and entrainment of the web from the new roll. 10 2,812,145

UNITED STATES PATENTS Schnitzler Dec. 22, 1931 Kallander et a1. Ian. 14, 1936 Schieman Sept. 26, 1944 McMullen May 22, 1951 Lewis et a1. Nov. 6, 1951 Wieking l May 13, 1952 Meloche Nov. 5, 1957 

